JP3345922B2 - Printer device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing on a member to be printed, such as a label tape or plain paper, and more particularly to a printer capable of printing a plurality of lines on a member to be printed. The present invention relates to a printer device capable of dividing a member to be printed between print lines in accordance with the number of print lines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Label tapes are attached to audio cassette tapes or CDs, or to files or disks, and are used for organizing these items. In general, such label tape is printed on a character by a thermal transfer printer device, a so-called label printer device.
A graphic or symbol is printed, and after printing, the label is cut into a desired length by a cutter mechanism built in the label printer device according to the printing length and the like.

In recent years, a label tape capable of printing a large amount of information on articles has been desired, and a label printer device capable of printing over a plurality of lines on the label tape has been proposed. Label tapes printed on multiple lines by such a label printer can not only contain a lot of information, but also can be used as small label tapes by dividing them between printed lines, and have excellent usability and economy. Become.

[0004]

However, in the above-described label printer device, in order to divide a label tape printed on a plurality of lines between print lines, that is, to use a label tape as a small label tape. Is
Individual users themselves must divide the printed label tape using scissors, etc., between the printing lines, which requires careful attention to the label tape dividing operation, and the label tape dividing operation is complicated and There was a problem that it was difficult. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a printer device capable of easily separating a member to be printed, such as a label tape, so that the member to be printed can be used economically.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in one embodiment of the printer according to the present invention, there is provided a printing device capable of printing characters, symbols, figures, and the like over a plurality of lines on a member to be printed. A printing line number detecting unit for detecting the number of printing lines printed on the printing target member by the printing unit; and dividing the printing target member at each printing line position printed over a plurality of lines on the printing target member. A plurality of possible cutting blades, and one of the plurality of cutting blades is selected according to the number of printing lines detected by the number of printing lines detecting unit. Control means for controlling the printing member to be separated between the printing lines.

[0006]

[0007]

According to one configuration example of the printer device of the present invention,
The number of printing lines on the member to be printed by the printing means is detected by the printing line number detecting means, and the dividing blade means is selected according to the detected number of printing lines, and the printing member is selected by the selected dividing blade means. Automatically split between print lines. Therefore, a member to be printed such as a label tape can be easily divided, and the member to be printed such as a label tape can be economically used.

[0008]

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 9 show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a label printer. FIG. 1 is an overall front view, FIG. 2 is an enlarged side view of a main part, FIG. 3 is a front view of the main part, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control system of the label printer device, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a control process, and FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 show a cutting mode of the label tape. FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a thermal transfer type label printer. The label printer 11 is provided with a keyboard unit 19 (see FIG. 5) having various keys on a case body (chassis) 12. This case body 12
A printing mechanism (printing means) 30 and a cutter mechanism 40 are assembled therein, and a cassette accommodating section (not shown) and a label outlet (not shown) are formed therein. The printing mechanism 30 is provided between the cassette housing section and the label outlet,
The cutter mechanism 40 is arranged close to the label outlet.

Although detailed illustration and description are omitted, the label tape 23 and the ink ribbon 23 are provided in the cassette accommodating portion.
The label cassette 20 containing o and the like is detachably mounted. A recess 21a is formed in the upper part of the label cassette 20 in FIG. 1 so as to face the printing mechanism 30, and a print head (described later) of the printing mechanism 30 and the like are located in the recess 21a when the label cassette 20 is mounted. This label cassette 2
0 indicates that the label tape 23 (see FIG. 7 and the like) and the ink ribbon 23o are sent toward the printing mechanism 30 in an overlapping state, such as during printing.

As is well known, the label tape 23
Is formed by laminating an adhesive layer, release paper, and the like on a tape base material.
Supplied on one side.

The printing mechanism 30 includes three platen rollers 3
1a, 31b, and 31c (hereinafter, represented by numbers without suffixes as necessary), and a print head 32 disposed below the platen roller 31 in the drawing. The print head 32 is biased by a spring or the like (not shown) at a position corresponding to the concave portion 21a of the label cassette 20 at the time of mounting, and is supported so as to be able to approach and separate from the platen roller 31. The print head 32 includes a print drive circuit 71
(See FIG. 5). The heating element generates heat according to characters, figures, images, and the like to be formed. Although not shown in the drawing, the print head 32 has a receiving portion for receiving a cutting blade such as a groove corresponding to a dividing blade described later.

The platen roller 31 is supported by a selection mechanism 60 so that one of the platen rollers 31 can be located at a position (printing / separation position) opposed to the lowermost print head 32 in FIG. The pressure between the label tape 23 and the print head 32 is narrowed. As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the selection mechanism 60 has a support disk 33 and a support gear 34, and each platen roller 31 has a support shaft 35a, 35b, between the support disk 33 and the support gear 34. It is rotatably supported by 35c (hereinafter, represented by a number without a subscript).

A gear 34a is formed on the outer periphery of the support gear 34, and the support disk 33 and the support gear 34 are rotatably supported by the rotation shaft 61 through a rotation shaft 61 rotatably penetrating the center. The rotating shaft 61 is rotatably supported by the case body 12, a gear 62 is fixed between the support disk 33 and the support gear 34, and an end protruding outside the case body 12 is used for cutting drive. It is connected to an output shaft of a motor (split motor) 64. The support gear 34 meshes with a gear 66 whose gear 34a is fixed to the output shaft of a motor (selection motor) 65 for selecting the cutting blade.

The cutting motor 64 and the selection motor 65 are attached to the case body 12 by the bracket 17.
The selection motor 65 is constituted by a motor defined by a drive signal inputting the rotation position of the output shaft, for example, a stepping motor or a geared motor. The selection motor 65 is connected to a controller 70 described later, and is supplied with a pulsed current from the controller 70. The dividing motor 64 is also connected to the controller 70 and is energized by the controller 70.

In this embodiment, the selection motor 65 is constituted by a stepping motor and a sensor for detecting the rotational position of the supporting disk or the like is not required. However, when this sensor is provided, the selection motor 65 is constituted by a normal motor. It is also possible.

The platen roller 31 is provided with gears 37a, 37b, 37c (hereinafter, represented by numbers without a suffix) at each end. The platen roller 31b has a cutting blade 38b at the center in the longitudinal direction. Roller 31c
Is provided with two cutting blades 38c at two locations which are approximately equally divided in the longitudinal direction. These platen rollers 31 are driven by a dividing motor 64 with the gears 37 meshing with the gears 62 described above, respectively, and the dividing blades 38c of the platen roller 31b.
Is arranged so that the label tape 23 can be divided at the center in the width direction, and similarly, the platen roller 31c is arranged so as to be able to divide the label tape 23 into three strips having substantially the same width. Each cutting blade 38 described above corresponds to a vertical cutting blade unit, and each cutting blade 38, the platen roller 32, and the selection mechanism 60 correspond to a cutting blade unit.

In this printing mechanism 30, one platen roller 31 is selected by the selection mechanism 60 in accordance with the number of lines printed on the label tape 23, and one platen roller 31 is rotated by the rotation of the selection motor 65 prior to the start of printing. Is moved to the print / separation position facing the print head 32. And
The label tape 23 and the ink ribbon 23o are interposed between the platen roller 31 and the print head 32.
3o is positioned at the print head 32 side and fed in an overlapping state, and the heat of the heating element of the print head 32 transfers the ink of the ink ribbon 23o to form characters, figures, images, etc. on the label tape 23, and , Platen roller 31
Is driven by a dividing motor 64 to divide the label tape 23 according to the number of printing lines, and sends the printed label tape 23 toward the cutter mechanism 40 by rotation of the platen roller 31.

As is apparent from the above description, each platen roller 31 not only functions as a platen roller in a thermal transfer printer, but also as a part of a cutter mechanism 40 for separating the label tape 23. It also functions. However, the mechanism for separating the label tape 23 does not necessarily need to be incorporated in the platen roller 31, and can be arranged in front of the print head 32 in the feeding direction of the label tape 23. It is also possible to arrange on the head 32 side to divide only the tape base material, that is, not to divide the release paper.

In the cutter mechanism 40, a cutter lever 41 is supported by a rotation shaft 42 in the vicinity of the above-described label outlet so as to be swingable in the directions of arrows A and B in FIG.
A lever gear 43 is provided integrally with the first gear 1. The cutter lever 41 is formed in an arc shape that can be easily operated manually, and is urged in the direction of arrow A by a torsion spring 44. The lever gear 43 is engaged with a cutter gear 46 rotatably supported by a rotating shaft 45, and
The cutter gear 46 is rotated by the manual operation of.

An engaging pin 46 a is implanted in the cutter gear 46 at an eccentric position, and the engaging pin 46 a is engaged with the cutter holder 47. The cutter holder 47 is supported by the case main body 12 so as to be vertically movable in FIG.
, That is, the cutter lever 41 is operated to move up and down. This cutter holder 47 has a label tape 2 at the bottom.
A cutting blade 49 capable of cutting the third 3 is provided. This cutting blade 4
9 is a cutter holder 47 by operating the cutter lever 41.
The label tape 23 is cut into a desired length and a length corresponding to the print line length. The cutting 49 corresponds to a transverse cutting means.

As shown in FIG. 5, the controller 70
The ROM 71, the RAM 73, the selection motor drive circuit 74, the division motor drive circuit 75, and the print drive circuit 76 are connected to the CPU 71, and each key of the keyboard section 19 is connected to the CPU 71. The CPU 71 is composed of a microcomputer or the like, and performs arithmetic processing on signals and the like input from the keyboard unit 19 to drive the driving circuits 74, 75, 7.
6 to output a control signal. The ROM 72 stores data such as characters, figures, symbols, and programs.
Reference numeral 73 temporarily stores data such as the number of line feeds to be described later.

Specifically, the CPU 71 of this embodiment comprises:
The number of line feeds for printing on the label tape 23 is determined, and the number of label tapes 23 to be divided, that is, the number of divisions, is calculated. If it is determined that a plurality of line feeds are present, a control signal corresponding to the number of line feeds is output to the selected motor drive circuit 74, and a control signal is output to the divided motor drive circuit 75. This CP
U71 corresponds to the control means. The CPU 71 corresponds to a print line number detecting unit.

The selection motor drive circuit 74 drives the selection motor 65 based on a control signal input from the CPU 71 and
The two platen rollers 31 are moved to a print / separation position facing the print head 32. Dividing motor drive circuit 75
Drives the dividing motor 64 based on a control signal input from the CPU 71 to rotate each platen roller 31.
As described above, the print driving circuit 76 drives the heating element of the print head 32 to generate heat according to the characters to be printed. This controller 70 corresponds to control means.

In this embodiment, the keyboard unit 19
, The heating element of the print head 32 is driven to generate heat and prints characters and the like on the label tape 23 at the specified number of line feeds. Divide. The control for dividing the label tape 23 is performed by the routine shown in the flowchart of FIG.
Run in In the following description, a label printer device having a maximum number of line feeds of 2, that is, a label printer capable of printing three lines on the label tape 23 will be described. However, the present invention can also be applied to a device capable of more line feeds.

As shown in FIG. 6, first, at step S11
Read the line feed number data at. In step S12, it is determined whether or not the number of print line feeds is 0. If the number of print line feeds is 0, in other words, if there is no line feed, step S12 is executed.
Steps S14 and S15 are performed. If the number of print line feeds is not 0, whether or not the number of print line feeds is 1 is determined in step S13. In step S13, if the number of print line feeds is 1, the processing of steps S16 and S17 is performed, and if the number of print line feeds is 2, the processing of steps S18 and S19 is executed.

In step S14, the motor is energized to revolve each platen roller 31, and the platen roller 31a having no cutting blade 38 is positioned at the printing / cutting position facing the lowermost print head in FIG. Then, in the following step S15, the platen roller 31a is driven by the dividing motor 64.
Is rotated to feed the label tape 23 toward the cutter mechanism 40. Therefore, the undivided label tape 23 is sent out to the cutter mechanism 40, and the label tape 23 is later separated by the cutter mechanism 40 according to the print line length as shown in FIG.
It is cut as shown in FIG. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7 (a), a small piece of label tape
3a is obtained.

Similarly, in step S16, the platen roller 31b having one cutting blade 38a is moved to the print head 32.
The cutting motor 64 is driven to rotate the platen roller 31 in step S17. Therefore, by performing the processing of these steps S16 and S17, FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 8, the label tape 23 printed on two lines is cut at the center between the printed lines, that is, divided into two strips.
As shown in (a), two small label tapes 23b are obtained in which the two-line printed label tape 23 is divided.

Similarly, in step S18, the selection motor 65 is driven to position the platen roller 31c having the two cutting blades 38c at the lowermost printing / separating position facing the print head 32. S19
, The dividing motor 64 is driven to drive the platen roller 31
To rotate. Therefore, these steps S18, 1
9A and 9B, the label tape 23 printed in three lines is cut in the longitudinal direction between the printed lines, that is, divided into three lines, as shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B. ), The small three-line printed label tape 23 is divided into small pieces.
One label tape 23c is obtained.

Thereafter, it is determined in step S20 whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed, that is, whether or not the label tape 23 has been fed by a predetermined length corresponding to the length of the print line. If the predetermined length of time has elapsed and the label tape 23 has been sent out by the predetermined length, step S2
In step 1, the power supply to the dividing motor 64 is stopped, and the rotation of the platen roller 31 is stopped.

Although not particularly described in the above-described embodiment, for example, a selection switch having an operation position between a division position and a normal position is provided so that whether or not the label tape 23 is divided can be selected by a selection switch or the like. , Only when this selection switch is operated to the dividing position.
Can be divided.

As described above, in this embodiment, one cutting blade 38 is selected according to the number of printing lines on the label tape 23, and the label tape 23 can be automatically cut between the printing lines. Therefore, small label tapes 23b and 23c separated at the position in the width direction of the label tape 23 can be easily obtained, and the label tape 23 can be used economically.

In the above-described embodiment, the label tape 23 including the release paper is divided as a whole. However, only the release paper is divided, that is, only the release paper is cut in the longitudinal direction of the label tape 23. It is also possible. Further, in this embodiment, the label tape 23 cannot be used as a small tape, but since a cut is formed in the release paper, the release paper can be easily separated.

In the above-described embodiment, the label printer 1 for printing on the tape-shaped label tape 23 is used.
1 describes the case where the present invention is applied,
The present invention is not limited to this example, and the present invention is also applicable to a printer capable of printing on a member to be printed such as card-shaped paper or plain paper.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the cutter mechanism 40 is provided with both the cutting blade 38 and the cutting blade 49, and the printed label tape 23 is cut vertically and horizontally by the cutting blade 38 and the cutting blade 49. It is also possible to configure. In this embodiment, since the label tape 23 can be divided into small pieces like a grid,
A large degree of freedom can be obtained in the formation of the label tape 23 and the like, and better usability can be obtained. However, even in this embodiment,
Before printing, the label tape 23 can be divided in the vertical direction.

[0037]

As described above, according to the printer device of the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of print lines are printed on the print target member in accordance with the number of print lines on the print target member. , The member to be printed can be easily divided and used for each printing line, and the economic efficiency can be improved.

[0038]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a label printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a main part of the label printer.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged front view of a platen roller with a cutting blade constituting the essential part.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view showing a positional relationship between a platen roller and a label tape, which are components constituting the main part.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control system of the label printer.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a control process of the label printer.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are schematic diagrams showing a cutting mode of a label tape printed on one line, in which FIG. 7A shows a label tape cut in a use state, and FIG. 7B shows a label immediately after cutting at a longitudinal position. Indicates tape.

8A and 8B are schematic diagrams showing a cutting mode of a label tape printed in two lines, in which FIG. 8A shows a label tape cut in a use state, and FIG. 8B shows a relationship between a position in a longitudinal direction and a position in a width direction. Indicates a label tape immediately after being cut by both.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are schematic diagrams showing a cutting mode of the label tape printed on three lines, in which FIG. 9A shows the cut label tape in the use state, and FIG. 9B shows the relationship between the longitudinal position and the width direction. Indicates a label tape immediately after being cut by both.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 11 label printer device 20 label cassette 23 label tape (member to be printed) 23a, 23b, 23c small label tape 23o ink ribbon 30 printing mechanism (printing means) 31, 31a, 31b, 31c platen roller 38a, 38b cutting blade (cutting blade) Means, vertical cutting blade means) 40 cutter mechanism 49 cutting blade (horizontal cutting blade means) 60 selecting mechanism 64 cutting motor 65 selecting motor 70 controller (control means) 71 CPU (print line number detecting means)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 11/66 B26D 1/11 B41J 15/04

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing means capable of printing characters, symbols, figures, etc. over a plurality of lines on a member to be printed, and a number of printing lines for detecting the number of printing lines printed on the member to be printed by the printing means. Detecting means, a plurality of types of cutting blades capable of cutting the print target member at each print line position printed over a plurality of lines on the print target member, and the number of print lines detected by the print line number detector Control means for selecting one of a plurality of types of cutting blade means in accordance with the above, and controlling the selected printing blade member to cut the print-receiving member between printing lines. Printer device.